WATCH: NatSec Chief Says Biden Ordered ‘Enhancements’ That Led to Discovery of Trump-Era Spy Balloon Flights

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan credited President Joe Biden with ordering the enhancements that led to the discovery of China spy balloon flights that were missed by then-President Donald Trump’s team during his term.

Complicating the angst from Biden critics over the spy balloon that captured the media’s attention for several days — and was shot down on Saturday — is the fact that several such balloons were reportedly flown over the U.S. during Trump’s term. And those balloons were not only not shot down, they weren’t even detected at the time.

On Thursday night’s edition of CNN Tonight, anchor Alisyn Camerota played part of an interview that Kasie Hunt conducted with Sullivan for the network’s report on the past flights, during which Sullivan credited the president with directing the intel community to prioritize the issue at the beginning of his administration:

CAMEROTA: CNN got an exclusive look at a U.S. miliary intelligence report from last year that focused on Chinese spy balloon sightings during the Trump administration. It found that in 2019, one balloon circumnavigated the globe, drifting past Hawaii and across Florida at an altitude of roughly 65,000 feet.

Here is what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Kasie Hunt about that discovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Because the Intelligence Community made this a priority at the direction of President Biden, we enhanced our surveillance of our territory and aerospace, we enhanced our capacity to be able to detect things that the Trump administration was unable to detect.

And we are also able to go back and look at the historical patterns. And that led us to come to understand that during the Trump administration, as you said, there were multiple instances where the surveillance balloons traversed American airspace and American territory.

Watch above via CNN Tonight.